


Organs and Annoyances

by Zayroen



Category: Fallout: New Vegas
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-17
Updated: 2020-01-17
Packaged: 2021-02-27 08:48:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,474
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22294318
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zayroen/pseuds/Zayroen
Summary: After being left with only a list and a nightstalker egg the courier somehow gathered, Arcade and Boone attempt to manage to complete the list by gathering organs from a mutt pack harassing traders. Easy right? Totally easy.
Kudos: 4





	Organs and Annoyances

It sat there, innocently. Like it was not something to be concerned about. Just a greyish ovalish object. Brought back to the Lucky 8 by their dear friend and left for them to watch over. Totally normal.

“This is not normal!” Arcade’s voice had taken on a bit of a higher pitch each time he repeated the words and while it was starting to grate on his nerves, Boone couldn’t really fault him. An egg. They’d been brought an egg. A *nightstalker* egg. Brought to them carefully wrapped up and kept at the right temperature, though how they had been sure of what said the temperature was Boone had no idea. “Boone! What are we going to do with this??” Right. Arcade still freaking out. Should tend to that at first. “And *no* we can’t eat it!” Damn. Plam B then.

“We take care of it. That’s why they brought it here, isn’t it? For whatever reason, they want to hatch it and need us to keep an eye on it. You want to be the one to say you fucked up the egg?” Arcade looked at him, eyes wide behind his frames then winced with a groan of defeat. “Exactly. So where’s that paper they left us?”

It took the better part of an hour and sacrificing a closet before they considered the end result to be finished. A nest, sort of, sat in the room. The best they could manage with what they had. Spare blankets had been hauled in and arranged as best they could in a somewhat sturdy box. The note left said that the egg had to stay warm, listing the temperature range but the two had to sit there and puzzle that shit out for almost twenty minutes as the penmanship left a lot to be desired. Like legibility. Eventually, they got a somewhat working heater hauled in as well and set that up to keep the small closet fairly warm.

“Ok well..that’s a nest built I guess?” Arcade said when they were finally as finished as they could be, egg tucked into the blankets securely. “What else does the note say?” He turned, adjusting his glasses as they both stared at the scribbled note in silence for a long moment. “.....Does that say livers” he asked, not really a question and more of a disbelieving statement because of *course* it said livers! Of course, they had to find livers for the damn egg. He pinched the bridge of his nose with a groan, turning away to stare at the bane of his current existence balefully. “Fuck this egg.”

Boone silently agreed with him but just sighed heavily. “It also says hearts.” he offered helpfully, knowing it wasn’t helpful at all and said it just to watch Arcade throw his hands in the air and stalk away. It was the little things that kept him sane after all. “We can find a bunch of radroaches easy enough.” he offered amid Arcade’s angry Latin. “Pretty sure there was talk of a pack of mutts harassing people nearby too.” he mused thoughtfully, scratching his chin as he looked back at the note. Best not to mention the other parts ‘suggested’ to feed the hatched Nightstalker considering Arcade was turning a rather interesting shade of red.

Leave the egg under the watchful monitor of Victor, the two of them headed out to collect what was needed. They had no idea when the egg would hatch if it did at all so having a supply in the freezer was the best plan. Arcade was still muttering but he’d at least switched back to words Boone could understand so it was an improvement at least. Even if it was planning to string their friend up by their toes and hang them from a high window for just dumping the egg on them and taking off again. 

“Can you *believe* they just show up, toss a nightstalker egg at us and then just...leave? What a pile of shit? Who *does* that?” honestly he shouldn’t be surprised. Given how many pies had courier fingers in them, Arcade was pretty used to watching said courier sprinting around to do a hundred things at once but even this was a bit much. “If you wake up and find me eaten, you better make sure that thing eats our *dear friend* next.” he huffed, lifting his gun as they approached where the mutts were last sighted, eyes scanning for any movement.

“Will do” Boone replied, already looking down his sight but he had a faint smirk when Arcade glanced over. Their conversation died down as they focused on tracking the mutts that had been harassing the caravans in the area. 

The signs of mutts were an easy thing to pick up. While most prints were unlikely to stay, the repeated stepping in an area was bound to leave something. Shrubs with parts bent or broken at a certain height, droppings and remains of meals. These should be easy enough to find and track. Except they weren’t. Despite all the stories of a mutt pack harassing people, there were very little signs. No droppings to be seen at all, not a hint of prints and any shrubs broken were done so at too high an angle to be dogs pushing through.

“I don’t like this..” Arcade offered when they took a small break, crouched behind a thick wall of cacti and a rocky outcropping. Not the best spot but enough to block the sight of them for the most part. “There are too many stories and reports of the damn things so where are they?” It made no sense and Arcade was a fan of things making sense. He liked sense! He wished more people had it to be honest.

Boone pulled his beret off briefly to wipe his forehead before putting it back on, frowning as he glanced out into the dusty plains. “No signs of mutts,” he said but he knew Arcade was right. He’d seen the marks on Brahim that managed to getaway. Something was out here but where? “Where’s the nearest watering hole?” He hadn’t wanted to given that not only mutts would be around the water but it was the last-ditch attempt at this point.

Arcade made a face but sighed, pointing in a direction. “All this for some damn egg that might not even hatch” he groused, adjusting his gun before setting off behind Boone. They were silent, tense the trip there until they could see it in the distance. No sign of anything taking a drink of the mildly irradiated water but that didn’t mean there wasn’t anything nearby. The inched forwards, each step cautious and it was Arcade that spotted it first. A print. Pawlike but off somehow. Easily enough confused for some sort of dog but the prints were big. Too big. Massive really. “What the hell…?”

Boone crouched, touching the print lightly. “Deep-set, a large creature. Top-heavy maybe. Looks like two? Yeah, two pairs of legs. Some big claws here too. The hell is it..?” He had never seen prints like this before, not anywhere in his travels or in the few books he’d found that were still legible. He glanced around, seeing a few other prints near the water’s edge and shrubs broken at close to the same height as the others they saw. “It’s big, whatever it is.” He still did not see a damn thing and given how big this creature was? That worried him. “Wherever it is..”

“Large prints..heavier at the front...it’s big. Very big. I’d say...at my shoulder is where it pushes through. It doesn’t leave anything behind when it feasts and it eats meat. A lot of it.” Arcade was mumbling to himself, racking his brain for any hint of knowledge that might tell him what this thing was. Surely he’s heard of it, even tall tales. It couldn’t be some new creature that no one’s seen before if the traders were reporting them as massive dogs. “Oh..oh no...it couldn’t be..but it has to be? The signs are there, what else could it be?” he was muttering to himself, adjusting his grip on his gun when Boone nudged him out of his little self rant. “Shit sorry. Sorry, it’s..now I’m not sure but at the same time, I’m totally sure. It’s a loper.”

Boone just blinked at him, brow furrowed over his glasses before his gaze snapped over at movement. What he had thought was just a rock, one of the hundreds out here, had just moved. “Holy fuck…” No wonder the traders thought it was one of the many radiated mutts. It stood almost like one but one alone could take down a brahmin. Easily with those massive jaws. No wonder it was top-heavy with the weight it carried. Pure muscle and sweet *fuck* when it yawned and he could see its massive teeth? “The hell is that thing..? A Loper? What the shit is a loper? Fuck that, we’re outta here. Go, go now!” he hissed under his breath, already backing up when the massive head lifted in their direction.

“Weave! Zigzag, it can’t turn quickly! I think!” Ignoring Boone’s yelp of ‘you think??’, he darted to the side as Boone went the other way and he felt rather than heard. It was quiet, no wonder the traders never saw it coming. Twisting, he fired a few shots that scored the thick hide of the beast before scrambling to put some distance between himself and the massive jaws.

The battle was quick, Boone moving and firing on instinct and Arcade, unfortunately, proving to be the distraction. His choice of weaponry offers bright flashy lights for the beast to focus on. His information proved to be false, in a way, it may not be able to turn on a cap but that massive head could certainly snap to the side with speed and did so, jaws starting to close around Arcade’s leg as he tried to back peddle swiftly.

**BANG**

Blood splashed over Arcade’s white lab coat but it very luckily wasn’t his own. Boone had landed a shot in the creature’s eye, ending it before it could remove Arcade’s leg violently. He was not ashamed even a little of the terror-filled yelp that left him as he went down with the beast’s forward momentum carrying it onto his prone form. It took a moment before he realized that it was dead and not about to devour his organs and even then, he wasn’t sure if it wouldn’t get back up. Irrational but he could let that slide considering what had just happened.

Boone rushed over, having to put his rifle down and put his back into it to roll the corpse of the beast off the smaller man with a grunt before kneeling to check fingers and toes as it were. “Can you stand?” he asked, not even trying to hide the worry in his voice as he felt over Arcade’s leg. Still there thankfully, a small slice on his calf from a wickedly sharp tooth but still there and nothing a stimpack couldn’t fix.

“I’m going to murder every trader that can’t tell the difference between a radstag sized beast and a *dog*.” He hissed, slowly pulling his sore body up, grunting as his ribs twinged. Not broken but he’d have to take it easy. “We gotta get back, tell everyone to watch out for these things.” He fished out a stimpack, hobbling over to sit on a rock to let it do its work.

Boone’s fingers twitched, uneasy at just standing around and bent quickly while pulling out his blade. Organs were still needed after all and some parts as evidence of their find out would save them a lot of arguing with people about the dangers. “Keep watch,” he called to Arcade, knowing that he would but falling back onto his habit of poking at the doctor to rile him up. If anything it would distract the man from whatever pain the stimpack hadn’t dealt with.

It was a long trek back to the town, Arcade refusing to carry the bloody sack and settling for the lesser items, teeth and the rolled-up skin. They had to have proof after all, that lopers were moving in and besides, a bounty was still a bounty. Not to mention this would still feed that stupid egg back at the Lucky 38.

By the time they were finished claiming the bounty, and proving that *yes* this was real and not something they stitched together and made up. How would they even stitch together a full pelt of a fake animal when they were presenting the whole damn thing? A number of caps heavier and they were taking the elevator.

“If they ever ask for another favour and I even think of saying yes? Pinch me.” Arcades entire back ached and he just wanted a hot shower and a nap. So, of course, that’s the opposite he got when the elevator reached the top. What he got was a crowd. People crowded around the closet and chattering loudly.

In the midst of all that, stood the one that started all of this. Telling the gathered crowd all about the egg that still remained in the closet nest the two had carefully crafted. What actually drew their gaze, however, was the fact that organs were being carefully put into a cooler. Organs that had been on the list. 

Upon being spotted, the dirty pair were greeted with an excited “Heya guys! Thanks for fixing up that nest! It looks great, you won’t believe what I heard though. Apparently a *loper* was spotted nearby, wouldn’t it be amazing if I tamed it? Think of how fast I could work riding one of them?” Amid the chattering, Boone gave a loud snort and dropped the bloody sack on the ground before heading towards the nearest shower. “What? Bad idea?” 

“I hate you so much right now” Arcade groaned, putting his own bag down albeit more gently before trailing after Boone and ignoring the ‘oh! More nightstalker food!’ from behind him. He was not interested in anything but a hot shower, sleep and not being around when the pelt was discovered. How word had travelled so damn fast, he had no idea but he shouldn’t be surprised. He also wouldn’t be surprised if that idiot managed to find another loper, tame it and somehow bring it up to the suite in the elevator. He only prayed *someone*, not him because he washed his hands of this but someone suggested an actual stable. One creature that might eat him was enough up here. Then again maybe he wouldn’t have to deal with the growing menagerie then. A tempting thought.

**Author's Note:**

> Lopers are a fandom made creature you can find loads of artwork of them on Tumblr as well as their creator. In short, they are the size of horses if horses were also massive canid beasts


End file.
